Standard Zombie
The Standard Zombie is the most common Zombie form seen in the ''Half-Life'' series. It is the manifestation of a standard Headcrab attaching to a victim's cranium and taking over their nervous system. Overview ".|left|thumb|200px]] Once a Headcrab successfully attaches to a host, the Headcrab will assume control of all their motor functions, able to walk and attack with the host's arms and legs. Through some unknown biological process, the host's hands turn into long, skeletal claws and a massive hole appear in their chest lined with the hosts' ribs, becoming a makeshift "mouth", with their ribs serving as teeth (zombies have been observed to feed by ripping chunks of flesh off of corpses and stuffing them into this maw) Removal of the Headcrab reveals that the host's head is bent abnormally upwards, their hair is matted with blood, and their face is pale, with their eyes shut and mouth open in a frozen scream. In Half-Life 2, the muffled pleas and screams coming from the zombies indicates that the victim may be somewhat aware of their zombified state and obviously in an unimaginable amount of pain the entire time. Occasionally, Headcrab zombies may survive losing both legs and their lower torso, and continue to crawl along using their arms. In most cases, a Headcrab remains attached to its host until the zombie is destroyed, although in Half-Life 2, they will occasionally detach from the host if it is rendered immobile by its injuries. Trivia * Playing parts of a victim's sound file backwards produces extremely disturbing yells of pain. The reversed cries have been interpreted as "Oh, god help! help me!" and "get it off me". If set on fire, the victims may say things that might be interpreted as "Why, why, why!?", "Help God help, help me!", "Gaaah!", "Gaaaah, I'm on fire! Gaaaaah!", "My life's fading!" and "My eyes sting! Gaaah!", "Put it out!". Similarly, raising the pitch of the sound file produces the words in a normal man's voice. * In Half-Life, zombies are seen "feeding" from dead scientists and soldiers by taking flesh from corpses and stuffing it into their chest "mouth." However, this is not seen in Half-Life 2. This behavior might have been scrapped or simply overlooked and not programmed. Another theory is that they put the "food" directly into their stomach. * In the non-HD variant of Half-Life and its expansions, a zombie's Headcrab appears to be "fastened" tighter to the victim's face, revealing the eerie outline of a human skull. * Two Standard Zombie growls can be heard in the film Drag Me to Hell, at 2:15. The Half-Life series uses many stock sounds heard in many other video games and films. * As well as being in the movie Drag Me to Hell the Zombie sounds are used in Valve's Left 4 Dead series. Gallery ''Half-Life'' and its expansions File:Zombie white bg.jpg|Concept art. File:Zombie render.jpg|Early high-res model render. File:Zombie b render.jpg|Ditto. File:Bm39.2.png|Early model render with the skull much more apparent than in retail. File:Zombie skulls.jpg|Ditto, in Black Mesa. File:Zombie Scientist.jpg|Original Half-Life model. File:Zombie multi.jpg|Deathmatch model. File:Zombie HD.jpg|HD model. File:Zombie grunt.jpg|The Zombie Grunt. File:Of1a10006.jpg|Grunt being zombified. File:Welcome to Black Mesa.jpg|Zombie grunt after killing a scientist. File:We Are Pulling Out.jpg|Security guard zombies. File:Zombie security guard.jpg|The Zombie security guard. ''Half-Life 2'' and its episodes Pre-release File:Zombie blobs.jpg|Concept art. File:Zombie sketch.jpg|Ditto. File:Zombie Ravenholm trailer.jpg|Early Beta Zombie in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUw33CwqE_I&hd=1 first Half-Life 2 trailer], reused for the Beta torso model. File:Crowbar zombie borealis.jpg|Early Zombie in the Borealis. File:Zombies beta rtb.jpg|Early Zombies in early Ravenholm. File:Zombies Ravenholm cover.jpg|Ditto. File:Zombie Ravenholm burn.jpg|Burning zombies in Ravenholm File:Zombies town.jpg|An early view of the Zombies in Ravenholm File:Zombies streets smg.jpg|Attacking beta zombies File:Zombie Standard beta.jpg|The Beta Zombie. File:Zombie Standard headcrabless beta.jpg|The Beta Zombie, without Headcrab, showing the jaw. The exposed jaw was recycled for the Zombine. File:Zombie Standard torso beta.jpg|Beta Zombie torso, based on the early Beta model. File:Zombie Standard torso headcrabless beta.jpg|Beta Zombie torso, without Headcrab. File:Boxing0038.jpg|Zombies about to fight in the map "boxing". File:Boxing0042.jpg|Zombies fighting in the same map. File:Boxing0045.jpg|Ditto. File:Boxing0048.jpg|Defeated Zombie in the same map. Retail File:Ep1 zombies.jpg|A group of Zombies in the City 17 Underground. File:Ep1 alyx zombie.jpg|Alyx encounters a Zombie. File:Ep1 alyx zombiefight.jpg|Ditto. File:Ep2 outland 06 zombie.jpg|A Zombie trying to break a fence. File:Ep2 outland 09 zombieshelling.jpg|Zombie near a Headcrab Shell. File:Ep2 outland 09 zombiegroup.jpg|A group of Zombies in The Outlands. File:Zombie HL2.jpg|Idle Zombie. File:Zombie fire arms raised.jpg|Zombie "on fire" animation, with arms raised. File:Zombie up sans headcrab.jpg|Zombie without Headcrab. File:Zombie torso.jpg|Zombie torso. File:Zombie torso headcrabless.jpg|Zombie torso, without Headcrab. File:Zombie torso headcrabless zoom.jpg|Ditto, closeup. List of appearances *''Half-Life: Day One'' *''Half-Life'' *''Half-Life: Uplink'' *''Half-Life: Opposing Force'' *''Half-Life: Blue Shift'' *''Half-Life: Decay'' *''Half-Life 2'' *''Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' References Category:Half-Life Category:Half-Life: Opposing Force Category:Half-Life: Blue Shift Category:Half-Life: Decay Category:Half-Life: Uplink Category:Half-Life 2 Category:Half-Life 2: Episode One Category:Half-Life 2: Episode Two Category:Zombies Category:Recurring themes Category:Enemies Category:Ted Backman designs